Enlightenment During The French Revolution

During the French Revolution a government cemented in the ideas of the Enlightenment was attempted to be created, especially from the year 1789 through the Reign of Terror. Enlightenment philosophies became prominent in many aspects of society, including polices dealing with the Church, the structure of the government, and political principles to base all future forms of government off of. As Enlightenment philosophies were rooted so deeply in the ideas of the French Revolution it was inevitable that the government created would be based upon these ideas in almost every single aspect of its legislation. One of the first declarations of political principles held by the leaders of the French Revolution was the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, which was published by the National Constituent Assembly in 1789. It was a document that would be consulted throughout the Revolution as a rule of moral principles and theologies that were to
Many philoshopes of the Enlightenment were deists, meaning they believed that any God that created nature so rationally must also be rational, and should therefore be worshipped in a rational manner. To these Enlightenment thinkers the Catholic Church, and all other established institutes of religion were not rational or enlightened whatsoever. A prominent Enlightenment thinker, Voltaire, who was not a deist, but whom opposed the Catholic Church equally vehemently is another example of enlightenment thought that later influenced the French Revolution. Voltaire, who was strongly against religious persecution, deduced that the Church was the greatest persecuted overall, and was therefore strongly opposed to it. More than anything Voltaire was an advocate for religious toleration and a leader of the crusade against religious persecution. Revolutionary thinkers tended to agree with